'Monkey Man' Never Existed, Say Delhi Police
NEW DELHI: Police detectives probing a slew of attacks in the Capital blamed on the elusive "monkey man" say the whole thing was a figment of people's imagination.
"Our investigations have shown that no such creature exists and it is more a case of rumours gone wild," said a member of the crack team set up four days ago by Delhi Police Commissioner Ajai Raj Sharma.
The police launched the probe after mass hysteria gripped the city claiming a "monkey man" was stalking Delhi's eastern fringes, attacking innocent people at night. The fear has since ebbed considerably.
A young man jumped from his terrace here and died after his neighbourhood was gripped by fear of an alleged "monkey man" attack. A pregnant woman and a second man were also killed during similar panic runs.
The police official said the team examined 46 people who claimed to have been attacked by the "monkey man". "We concluded that most of them sustained injuries during stampede," he told IANS. The team will submit its report to the police chief Tuesday.
Such was the panic caused by the "monkey man" that legislators from the area urged the government to deploy paramilitary commandos to hunt down the creature, which some witnesses said hopped from one terrace to another but vanished after each attack. Many victims claimed scratch marks caused by sharp claws.
Since May 10, Delhi Police received about 300 calls related to the "monkey man", most of which turned out to be hoax. "Most incidents occurred in the low income group residential areas in east and northeast Delhi. There is no scientific evidence which could explain the attacks," the official said.
"Doctors say all the injuries were of ordinary nature. They have also ruled out the involvement of a monkey.
"We also examined a dozen or so injured people living in Ghaziabad and concluded that there is no gang involved and no wild monkey is on the prowl. Even the theory that a deranged man is behind all the attacks has been negated," he added.
The police, however, say both intensified patrolling and the fear of the "monkey man" contributed to curbing crime in the city.
"Another good thing was that many of the affected areas now get uninterrupted power supply during night," he said. Until recently, endemic power outages kept most of these areas in darkness.
A police officer said complaints about the "monkey man" fell sharply this weekend after the police arrested people suspected of spreading rumours. "We are now meeting residents to tell them that there was no mysterious creature, no 'monkey man'. Maybe
• Story originally published by •
The Times Of India - May 22 2001
[Original headline: Delhi police close to solving the "monkey-man" mystery ]
New Delhi, [Reuters] Police in the capital said on Saturday they believed they were close to solving the case of the mysterious "monkey man", blamed for attacks in which dozens of people have been bitten and clawed.
But there was no respite from complaints by residents in some New Delhi suburbs who flooded police with reports of sightings and attacks by an ape-like creature that has created hysteria in the sprawling city over the last week.
"We have already narrowed down our suspicion on the people involved in the mischief," Joint Commissioner of Police Suresh Roy said. "We should be able to end this soon."
Police have offered a reward of 50,000 rupees for information leading to the capture of the "monkey man", which Roy said was not an animal, but "humans involved in mischief".
Roy said police had arrested 12 people on charges of spreading rumours and creating panic in the city of 13 million people that is already gripped by fear.
Roy said police received numerous calls from panic-stricken residents in eastern and northeastern suburbs of the city on Friday night but most of the calls were hoaxes.
Three frantic people have fallen to their deaths from buildings in the past week because they thought the mysterious creature was chasing them.
Vigilante bands have taken to the streets armed with hockey sticks and batons to track down the attacker.
Descriptions of the attacker looks have varied wildly. Some people have said that it had a metallic claw, others said it was like a cat with tawny glowing eyes and one said it had "flaming red eyes and green lights glowing on its chest".
• Story originally published by •
The Indian Express - May 19 2001
See also Did India's Monkey Man First Strike In 1996? | Three Deaths Attributed To India's Monkey Man | Hairy Creature Runs Amoke In Indian Capital
